Privacy policy

This policy describes what information Aligners.co handles as the site works today. Aligners.co is privately owned; "we", "us" and "our" in this policy mean Aligners.co. If we add features that collect more, we will update it before they go live.

Information you give us

There are no accounts. You only give us contact details through the finder, the Contact page or an Aligner Alerts sign-up, as described below.

The provider finder's answers stay in your browser until you give your details in the finder's last step, ask a provider to contact you, or save or share your results.

Before showing your full results, the finder asks for your first name, email address and ZIP code, and a phone number if you like. We use your first name on your results page, email you a summary of your results with a link to them (saved as described below), and keep your details on our server for 30 days, so a request to a provider is already filled in if you make one. Your browser keeps only a random key for them, not the details themselves. They aren't sent to any provider unless you ask, and you won't be added to a mailing list.

On a matching provider's result you can press Email me or Call me, check the details we've filled in, tick the box naming the provider, and send the request. Requests come to Aligners.co, and we pass each one only to the provider named. We pass on only what that provider needs (an email address or phone number, and sometimes your name or ZIP code) together with your finder answers. We keep a record of each request, the wording you agreed to and when, for 12 months, so we can show what was sent and stop it being sent twice. A request isn't an appointment; after that, the provider's own privacy policy applies. Your contact details are never added to a results link.

If you choose Copy results link or Email my results, your finder answers and the shortlist they produced are saved on our server under a random link, so the results can be opened again on any device. Anyone with the link can view them. They hold no name, contact details or location, and are deleted 180 days after saving. If you choose Email my results, the email address you type is used to send that one message through our email service and is not kept with your results or added to any list.

If you sign up for Aligner Alerts, we keep your email address with the edition and page you signed up from, the wording you agreed to, and when you signed up, confirmed and unsubscribed. We send one email asking you to confirm and nothing else until you do; unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days. Once you confirm, we email you occasionally about clear aligner price changes and provider offers. Your address isn't linked to your finder answers or passed to any provider. Every email has an unsubscribe link; after you unsubscribe we send nothing more and keep only a note that you unsubscribed, so you aren't emailed again by mistake.

If you send a message through Contact, your name, email address and message are emailed to our inbox through our email service so we can reply. They are not stored on the site or added to any list.

Information stored on your device

• A cookie remembers which edition you chose, United Kingdom or United States.
• Your provider finder answers are kept in your browser's session storage until you close the tab or choose Start again. They are not added to the page address.
• Your comparison selection is kept in your browser's session storage until you close the tab. It is also added to the comparison page's address (URL) so the comparison can be reloaded or shared. That part of the URL is not a cookie or stored site data; it is covered below.
• Your analytics choice is kept in your browser's local storage. Google Analytics cookies are set only if you accept analytics.

Cookies lists these in full.

Services that handle information for us

• Vercel hosts the site. Its network may deliver a stored copy of a page from a location near you; pages built when you ask for them, and every form you send, are handled in Vercel's Washington, D.C. region in the United States. Information from visitors in the United Kingdom is therefore processed in the United States.
• Supabase provides the database that holds the details, saved results, provider requests and Aligner Alerts sign-ups described above.
• Resend sends the site's emails: results summaries, Aligner Alerts emails, and the Contact messages and provider requests that come to our inbox.
• Google Analytics counts page visits, only if you accept analytics cookies (see Analytics and advertising below).

Information our hosting service handles

Like any website, each request to Aligners.co includes technical information, such as your IP address, browser type and the page you asked for. The page address includes any comparison selection in it, such as ?providers=smileset,newsmile, so that selection may appear in Vercel's request logs. Like any URL, it can also stay in your browser history, in bookmarks and in any link you share. Vercel processes request information to deliver pages and keep the site secure.

To stop the forms being misused, the site counts how often each connection sends a form or opens saved details and requests, for an hour at a time. Each count is stored under a code made from your IP address with a secret key, which can't be turned back into the address, and is used only for that hour and then cleared out.

Analytics and advertising

If you accept analytics cookies, Aligners.co uses Google Analytics, a Google service, to count visits to its pages. Until you choose Accept analytics, and at any time after you reject or withdraw it, our pages load nothing from Google, set no analytics cookies and send Google nothing.

When you have accepted, each page you view on aligners.co sends Google the page address without anything after a "?" or "#", the page title, the page you came from (only the website's address if it was another site), your browser and device type, and your IP address, which Google says it uses to estimate your approximate location and does not store. Google Analytics cookies (_ga and _ga_ followed by an ID) give your browser a random identifier so repeat visits can be counted. Google may process this information in the United States.

Google Analytics is switched off on the provider finder, results pages, saved results links, Aligner Alerts links and the Contact page, so nothing about your visit to those pages is sent to Google, and we never send it your name, email address, phone number, ZIP code, finder answers, or any request or results reference. Google signals and advertising features are off, and the information is not used for advertising.

You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page, or on the Cookies page. If you withdraw it, the analytics cookies are deleted and nothing more is sent. Apart from Google Analytics after you accept, our pages do not load scripts, fonts or images from other companies' servers, and we do not use advertising or social media tracking.

Links to other websites

Our pages link to providers and other sources. Those websites have their own privacy policies, which apply to anything you share with them.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, state law may give you rights to know about, correct or delete personal information a business holds about you. We hold very little personal information, as described above. Contact explains how to send a request.